Senegalese sociologist Djiby Diakhaté has argued that education is needed to persuade African societies to abandon practicing Female Genital Mutilation (GM).
Excision is rooted in very strong cultural values and representations that determine behavior. When we refer to the Dogon mythology, we realize that at the outset, there was no distinction between man and woman. There was only one individual who was both male and female.
After this individual committed a sin, the god Amma ejected him from paradise and brought him to earth. It was then that he split in two. Since this is how it is, we consider that there is a female part and a male part in each individual. By circumcision, the female part is removed from the man, and by circumcision the male part is removed from the woman.
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For circumcisers, as long as a girl is not circumcised, she is not totally one. There is a part of masculinity in her. For the Bambara community, an individual of this kind is incomplete. We call him bilaporo i.e. an individual who is defiled. Therefore, he cannot cook, speak in public or even get married.
We have a certain number of cultural, cosmogonic representations, which determine the practice of excision. Some will say that it is for the girl to be chaste until marriage. But it is believed that until this operation is done, the individual does not have a precise gender.
What is the right approach to ending FGM in Africa?
The most effective approach is educating people. It is crucial for community actors, not those from outside, to convince them of the need to throw away such practices.
These actors include for example, religious and customary chiefs from the community. They can serve as facilitators with the community. Unfortunately, the methods hitherto used by NGOs and States have consisted of calling on people from outside the community to talk about this issue. People can listen but the message does not get through. To have more impact, the message must be carried by people with some legitimacy at the local level.
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We must also offer tangible and intangible alternatives to circumcisers who abandon this activity. The material alternative is socio-professional integration. And for the immaterial one, it is necessary to make people understand that their representations are unfounded.
In addition, this cultural tradition must be opposed to Islam, because most of the communities that excise are Muslim. We have to demonstrate that people can be good Muslims without cutting female genitals.
Why is the criminalization of excision not a deterrent?
In several African countries, there is a law, which criminalizes female genital mutilation and cutting. But it seems to me that these laws have further compounded the situation. People are now forced to do it in secret, that is to say, in disregard of the most basic clinical principles. Besides, this often leads to infections.
Basically, this means that we have made legislation without first working on education, awareness and support for the population. In addition, some Non-Governmental Organizations believed that circumcisers had abandoned this practice after their sensitizations campaigns. But the problem is not only at this level; excision is an income-generating activity for them. They were made to give up their work without offering them viable alternatives.
There are parents who think their daughters should be cut, even in urban areas. You have to understand that this is not only a rural practice. Immigrants even leave western countries to have their children cut.
People need to understand that people who support female genital cutting explain it for metaphysical reasons. If this is not understood, the medical argument cannot be accepted.
Those who smoke cigarettes know that it kills, but they continue to do it anyway. Some societies know that FGM is dangerous but they continue to practice it. It is because they are convinced that by ceasing this activity, they will jeopardize their existence.
You have to understand that and work to set up mass communication supports that take into account people’s realities and convictions, without hitting them, without upsetting them.
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